Students Enjoy Halloween Assembly

A mysterious pair of pants flies onto the Assembly Hall stage. As the belt hits the floor, Exonians stare as seniors Joey Hebl and Curran Sullivan burst onto the stage. Hebl is wearing a striped beanie, a plaid, zip-up hoodie and black sweats, but Sullivan isn’t wearing pants. He is wearing underwear—tighty whities over spandex—which is why he lunges for the crumpled trousers. The duo performs a sketch dressed as characters from the popular television show Breaking Bad.This Tuesday Exonians celebrated Halloween two days prior to October 31, the traditional holiday date, to coincide with the much-anticipated costume contest held during the Halloween assembly.The campus-wide event, organized by the student council recreation committee and chaired by uppers Ardit Kukaj and Emily Lemmerman, provided a break from the regular school day.Tuesday’s assembly, which featured the cast of The Breakfast Club, a monster mashed together with a paper-maché mask and a large white plastic bucket for a body and the white queen from Alice in Wonderland, among others, saw the five winners awarded with Stillwells money.This year’s judges included chemistry instructors Andrew McTammany and Sasha Alcott, Dean of Multicultural Affairs Russell Weatherspoon, Spanish instructor Fermin Perez and Student Services & Day Student Coordinator Janice Truman.First place went to seniors Alex Trudeau and Sam Blank, who dressed as Canadians. Clothed in skin-tight body suits emblazoned with maple leaves, brandishing hockey sticks and enunciating the long vowels associated with the nation’s accent, the duo completed a short comedic sketch about igloos and moose hunting. Second place was awarded to Sarah Chisholm and her dog, Mosby, an Scottish Deerhound, who arrived as little red riding hood and the wolf.“The Canadian pair was my favorite this year because they put a whole thing together—colorful and funny costumes plus a very humorous comedy act,” Perez said. “The Breaking Bad characters were also amusing. I loved their beginning with the pants flying in the air.”As a ten-year returning judge, Weatherspoon, who looks for originality, creativity and execution in the costumes, did not find the efforts of past Tuesday comparable to that of  previous years.“I keep hearing that we are just going to judge the costume, and then there's an act, too,” he said. “Time to just judge the costume.”Many spectators, however, thought the Halloween assembly was more entertaining than the three previous years.“The judges had the same amount of commentary as last year but were funnier; they were more engaged, I feel,” Upper Margaret Ann Collins, who last year dressed up as Disney’s Princess Miranda from the film Brave, said.Perez also complimented the comedic component of the contest this year. “I liked it better than last year because they let students go ahead with skits and the judges got to say something,” he said. “Last year was more about the costumes and the points, but it is much better when there is room for some comedy and the judges also become part of the show.”Banter between the judges consisted of Perez, who awarded only 8 or 8.8 out of ten points and Truman, who lost her composure and laughed hysterically at Elijah Robison’s robot outfit. “I haven’t been speechless in 25 years,” she said.In addition, students consistently hissed at McTammany’s low scores and spiteful comments. “I’ll give you a three because only three of you actually tried,” he said in reference to the Breakfast Club Quintet.Many members of the community felt the event was successful because it broke up the established weekly pattern of assembly speakers.“It is always good to have an assembly like the Halloween one,” Perez said. “It reminds us we have to laugh. Laughing is a motor for our daily life, and having assemblies like [these] could even help with making us more focused on those other assemblies with speakers. It is like you had your laugh, and now you can focus on the serious stuff.”McTammany felt that the assembly was an opportunity to recognize the hard work students put into making their costumes. “The doughnuts afterwards were pretty good too,” he added.In two emails sent to the student body, the committee encouraged all Exonians to wear costumes to class, not just those in the assembly contest.Students across campus responded with a great array of costumes, from pairs of cat ears to a deadmau5 mask to Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.“Halloween is great because there's always a wide range of costumes,” senior Joey Hebl said. “I saw people in onesie PJ's, Batman outfits, NSA agents with ear pieces and a radio antenna, a Russian billionaire and my favorite: the public school student.”“Halloween is an important celebration in the town of Exeter as well as on campus,” Russell Weatherspoon said. “Lots of folks of all ages love to dress up in costumes they made or bought. It's a lot of fun. Some of the people in the audience should have been on the stage. Kudos to people's creativity.”The emails also emphasized the importance of “family friendly” costumes, which, unlike some previous years, were subject to faculty review.Weatherspoon explained that there has always been an expectation for the costumes to be “family friendly.”“A few kids always want to overdo a sexual theme--as if it hasn't been done before,” he said. “But young children are usually in the audience, whether we're outdoors or indoors, so keeping them in mind is important.”Hebl agreed, commenting that Exonians must uphold an honorable reputation.“It seems reasonable.  We're students at Exeter, we should achieve a decent level of clothing, which includes at least tighty-whities. Plus, it keeps the number of seductive cats and devils down, which make classes a little less awkward,” Hebl said.